Messages - EHall

we just had to put down one of our cats earlier this year due to renal failure. He was about 10. We noticed that he lost alot of weight pretty quickly, he went from about 22-24# to about 15 when we finally noticed something was going on. (we had been trying to reduce his weight for quite a while and though we were finally successful...) But this cat used to drink a ton of water, then as he got worse he stopped drinking. We had to give him the fluids under the skin for a while. He wouldnt eat the renal food either. We just basically spoiled him for the last couple months, giving him plenty of wet food and treats so to keep him as hydrated as possible, but we made the decision early on that when we thought his quality of life was declining, we'd put him down. All you can do is just try to keep him hydrated and comfortable and enjoy him while hes still here. Its not fun watching anyone or anything die slowly.

I also keep a bottle of chocolate coffee flavoring around, sometimes put it in my coffee, sometimes add it to a porter or stout if I'm feeling like it... works very well and I don't have to flavor up an entire keg/batch.

I do test batches of 1gal sometimes when I wanna try something and don't think I want 5+gals of it. ( Idid a series of test batches using kaffir lime leaves and am glad I didn't brew 5gal at a time of some of them) I use a 2gal cooler with a screen at the bottom, 1 gal jugs to ferment in. So far I've pitched the entire packet or vile of yeast in with no noticable ill effects... I'll also do 2.5-3gal batches of something thats usually 7% or higher, usually anything thats going to be bottled and aged for a while... Even though its almost the same amount of time to do a smaller batch than 5+gal, I like being able to try something and tweak it til I like it w/o having to go thru 5gals of it... only so much room/time to drink...